Scrubs and Beyond
by TheIrishShipperholic
Summary: AU, the next generation. It was more than just having a degree and the opportunity to wear scrubs. For Zola Shepherd and her fellow interns, it was an opportunity to find romance, endure heartbreak and ease through unexpected tragedies. But, most of all, it will help them see their potential...in scrubs and beyond. [collaborative fan fiction]
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Scrubs and Beyond  
**Author:** Katie (TheIrishShipperholic) and Jess (shooting stars on Shadow Play)  
**Disclaimer:** We own nothing but this story  
**Show/Movie/Book:** Grey's Anatomy  
**Couples/Category:** Mark/Lexie, Meredith/Derek, Owen/Cristina, past Alex/Izzie, others to be determined; AU next generation  
**Rating:** Mature/R, for the necessary chapters and foul language  
**Summary:** AU, the next generation. It was more than just having a degree and the opportunity to wear scrubs. For Zola Shepherd and her fellow interns, it was an opportunity to find romance, endure heartbreak and ease through unexpected tragedies. But, most of all, it will help them see their potential…in scrubs & beyond.  
**Author's Note:** I'm enthusiastic about dipping back into the Grey's Anatomy pool of writing, and I'm glad that Jess is joining me on this journey! Bless you, Jess!

**Chapter One**  
Gathering her helmet in hand, Zola Shepherd headed toward the Stevens-O'Malley Medical Clinic, smiling the entire time. Once inside, she smiled at those rushing around to start welcoming the new interns…one of whom was her. Zola was famous somewhat around here, both at the hospital AND the clinic, having been adopted at a young age by Dr. Meredith Grey-Shepherd and Dr. Derek Shepherd. Speaking of her adopted mom, she spotted the familiar dark blonde hair of her mother nearby, amongst those rushing around, but Meredith paused upon seeing her oldest daughter. Smiling, Zola ran toward her mom, who met her halfway and the two Shepherd women hugged. "I thought you weren't coming until later, Z," Meredith said after pulling back.

"I managed to get an earlier flight, thanks to Aunt Cristina," Zola replied with a smile.

Meredith smiled in response, kissed her daughter on the forehead and said, "How does it feel?" She was excited for Zola; that much was evident in her voice. Meredith remembered the first day when she came through those wide hospital doors. She didn't know it yet, but she was going to become one of the finest doctors of her generation. And her daughter had the same frequent trips to the hospital where she worked, her eyes eagerly peering through the glass window to see what her mother was up to…just like Meredith was, when she was only a young girl.

"I…I don't know." Zola hesitated. "Is it okay to be excited, happy, nervous, and scared out of my wits all at the same time?" She enquired curiously.

Meredith chuckled softly and said, "I bet you didn't think feeling all that at once was possible, did you, Z?" She drew closer to her daughter and whispered, "This is going to be the best ride of your lifetime. It will bend you, it will break you, but it will enable you to come out stronger, I promise."

She kissed her daughter and looked at the pager on her waist which had just started to beep. "Go," Zola told her mom, watching as Meredith turned and rushed off once more, heading headlong into another medical emergency.

After Meredith was gone, Zola got another look around at her surroundings then took a step forward…and collided with someone, knocking the papers that had previously been neatly stacked into the other person's arms onto the floor, haphazardly. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" Zola's voice was soft and apologetic as she knelt to help the person, a male, pick up the papers.

Pulling the papers that were scattered all over towards the center, she quickly piled them up and neatened them out before standing up and reaching them out to the man who stood opposite to her. Her eyes slowly drew upward, and she was taken aback for a second. He had those dreamy blue eyes that she had always envisioned. Hesitating, she handed them over and muttered apologetically again.

"Don't worry about it." His voice was so warm and comforting that everything else seemed irrelevant for that moment in time. "It was just a bunch of reading material anyway, so nothing awfully important that you ruined." He shrugged it off casually. "I'm Austin." He said, reaching his hand out to her.

"Zola."

"That's not a name that you hear every day," he said as the two of them shook hands. "So, are you here for something, or are you here to talk to someone?"

"I'm actually here because I'm one of the new interns. For the Grey-Sloan Medical Center," Zola told him. "What about you?"

"That's one hell of a coincidence." Austin finished.

"No way, you are too?" Zola replied, her voice indicative of happiness.

He nodded, and stacked the papers that Zola had just handed over to him in his arms once again. "Where are you from?"

"Originally, I'm from Africa. But, I was adopted and Seattle has been my home for quite some time," Zola told Austin as she stood back up.

_Adopted_…. Austin mulled his empathy for her in his mind, careful not to voice it out. "That's quite a story that you've got there." He mused, before he continued elaborating on his own. "I was born and raised in Seattle. No big surprise, there." He refused to acknowledge and put into light the fact that his mother, Isobel Stevens hadn't survived her fight with cancer. Don't get him wrong, she had fought strong and she had fought hard. Izzy had battled cancer for ten long years before it got to her, and Austin was around nine when his mother had passed away. It was strange for a kid of his age, but he convinced himself that wherever she was, she wasn't suffering, at least. His father, Alex Karev, didn't take it very well, though. And his two younger siblings, Abby and Delaney were too young to figure out what was happening.

Figuring things out after the death of Izzy was rough. It was hard on Austin, but life got awfully messy for Alex. "Born and raised, huh? Do I, or would I know your parents?" Zola asked.

"I wouldn't think so, unless you were familiar with the name Karev?" Austin asked.

"I don't, but my mom might. Or my Aunt, my godmother, Cristina, might," Zola responded. The name Karev wasn't awfully familiar, but she had heard it float around the household once or twice. However, she hadn't put much thought into the million people that her parents were always talking about, which was why she couldn't give much of a positive response. "Maybe I'll look you up with my mom later," Zola added mischievously. "Want to head down to the induction seminar together? I think it's scheduled to start sometime soon, isn't it?"

"Sure," Austin said. He turned until he was next to Zola, holding out his arm, crooked at the elbow, for her to take, which she did with a smile.

He and Zola headed toward the board room at the clinic, which was on the downstairs level. They climbed down the stairs while casually acquainting themselves with each other's past and present. Zola learnt some pretty fascinating things about Austin, and Austin about Zola.

Austin pushed open the door after they turned the corner and strutted into the corridor with Zola on his arm. The two of them turned left and gently pushed open another door and walked in, noticing that they were one of the first ones there. The two other people in there were a five foot something brunette and a slightly similar looking male with the same shade of brown hair. The brunette came up to Zola and Austin and immediately hugged Zola. "Hi, Z, how are you?" she asked the African-American.

"I'm great, Leigh. How's Aunt Cristina?" Zola responded in question form back after the two pulled away from the hug. "And I'm going to call her later, _again_, but tell her I said thanks for the early plane ticket back, will you?" She offered a shy smile. What Christina had done for Zola, she would never get tired of thanking.

She took a few steps around towards Austin's side and took the moment of silence to do quick introductions. "I don't know if you two have met, but Leigh, this is Austin. Austin, Leigh." Her hands darting from one individual to the other, and back again.

"Nice to meet you," Leigh said with a soft smile.

"And you too," Austin said, returning her smile with one of his own.

"Who's he?"

"Henry Sloan," was the prompt reply from Leigh.

Zola smiled softly. "Come on, let's get you two acquainted." She pulled Austin by the arm and took him over to Henry. "Henry, meet Austin." She watched as the two men stretch out their arms, which resulted in a firm handshake.

"It's nice to meet you, Austin," Henry said quietly. He turned to smile at Zola. "And hi, cousin, how's it going?"

"It's going great. How is…everyone?" she asked, giving him a quick hug.

"Trying to calm the nerves…"

"Excited…"

"I can't wait."

Three responses came at almost the same moment. Zola sighed, before she took a seat on one of the chairs and motioned towards the rest of them to sit down, as well.

In just a few short minutes, people would come bustling through those doors. Hold on, not people, but _interns_. And not just interns eager to make their mark in the medical world, but also interns ready to battle it out for those five coveted spots in the Residency Program and interns who are out for blood, quite literally, too. Zola looked around at the three people sitting around her. She didn't know very much about Austin, but Leigh and Henry, she did. And it was like going through hell with her two best friends in the world. She couldn't and wouldn't dare ask for anything more.

**Later – Joe's Bar**…

"Here's to success!" Zola echoed in unison with Henry, Leigh and Austin as they all let their glasses connect at the upper brim.

"That couldn't have been better," Leigh added quickly after taking in her first sip. "But that wasn't the challenge to begin with. The real challenge begins tomorrow."

"48 hours of being bitches to the residents. Should be fun…" Austin nodded, sarcastically and shrugged.

Just then, the door opened to reveal the familiar face of one of Zola's adopted twin sisters, but she knew immediately which twin it was…Jessica. Zola got up and went over to her sister. "Hey, Jess, what brings you here?"

"Oh! Hey, Z…I was actually meeting my date here. Have you seen him?" Jessica asked.

"Seen…who?" Zola hesitated, unsure about this new development in Jess' life.

"My date, silly…" was the quick reply that came as Jess playfully slapped her sister across the shoulder, lightly, of course.

"Who's your date? I thought you were seeing…?" Zola confirmed, unsure of how to react.

"You think I'm still dating our friend and god-cousin's brother? Oh, no, no, no…there's another man I'm seeing. Actually, he's visiting from out of town. He came here just to see me," Jess replied.

Zola let out a sigh, a huge sigh of relief. That would have been messed up in more ways than she could describe…if it were the case. "He's a doctor too, I suppose?" Zola confirmed, looking around for an unfamiliar face. Some one who looked like they were relatively new around here, someone who looked kind of lost; she scoured the place in its entirety and when she was just about to give up, she spotted a man who sat all alone just off center of her vision and he was sipping on his drink. "I suppose that's him?" Zola pointed in his direction and then turned to look at Jess.

"Yes! Later, Z…" Jess said as she hurried off. Zola shook her head then returned to her friends. She'd known basically all her life that Jessica or her twin sister, Amber had any interest in going into the medical field like Zola had. But she figured that was how things worked. Probably, Jess and Amber saw the hours that doctors would have to work – how they would have to slog their asses off until they got to being a resident. And perhaps, they weighed all these cons against the pros and just thought it wasn't worth it. Zola shrugged it off and returned to her friends. "So guys, what's the plan for tonight?"

"I don't know about you two," Henry said. "But, Austin and I were discussing it while you were talking to Jess, and he's agreed to be my wing-man for the night. So…later, ladies…"

Zola chuckled then reached out and ruffled his hair before tugging on her friend's hand so that they could go sit down at a table by themselves. "How has everything been, Leigh?" she asked once they were in their high stools.

"It's been good. I, um, I actually was hoping I could talk to you about something…or rather, someone. That I've been seeing," Leigh said hesitantly.

"Leigh, you know when it comes to all of this, I don't judge." Zola replied, reassuring her in whatever way was possible. She then continued. "So, who's the lucky guy?" she asked as she grinned at Leigh. "Oh no, wait. Let me guess!" she added, before Leigh could even open her mouth to give out the precious name. "Is it…Henry, or maybe Austin?"

"Ugh, no, they're too much like brothers that I don't feel they'd be suited for me romantically. Actually…it's your brother, Garrett," Leigh told her.

Zola stopped talking as soon as she heard the name Garrett. She took a second, stared at Leigh, poker faced and said, "Garrett? Are we talking about the same Garrett who's sloppy and annoying and always chooses to annoy people rather than help them out in times of need?" Although she couldn't believe it, Zola could see why Leigh liked him. At the end of the day, he was still hilarious, kind hearted, and there was something extremely reassuring about him. "Well that's great news!" Zola uttered, as enthusiastically as she could muster. "I am going to kill him though." She muttered, more or less to herself.

"No, Z. You can't tell him I told you this!" Leigh pestered, her hand clutching onto Zola's for dear life. "He said he'd tell you when he felt the time was right. And I just couldn't keep something like this away from you."

"No. You don't have to worry about me. It's our mothers we have to worry about, especially their reactions to…" Zola said, waving her hand around. "One thing's for sure, you guys don't have to sneak around. You can always use me as an excuse. Or for that matter of fact, you can just say you're hanging around with him." Anything would sound like the best excuse at the moment. Anything, as long as Meredith and Cristina, or Derek and Owen didn't find out what was happening. Zola shuddered at the mere possibility of their parents finding out about these two. That would have just been…_something else_.

**Authors' Notes:** (Katie) So, here it is…the newest, latest collaboration that I am venturing on with a NEW author. I love Jess for taking this journey with me. (Jess) After constant back and forth PM's with Katie about this first chapter, I am now more excited than ever to continue writing the rest of my adventure into fan-fiction. Love you, Katie :3


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**  
_This is only the beginning…_

Zola walked down the last five minute stretch to the Grey-Sloan Medical Center, where she would clock in for her first day at work today. Her first of infinitely many forty eight hour shifts where she would, in all probability, curse herself for desiring to take up medicine in the first place. But then, it would strike her like a flashbulb that this was what she wanted to do her entire life, and suddenly the tire from the exhaustion would vanish as if it were a mere fragment of her imagination.

With a skip in her step, she tucked her phone back into her pocket after checking if there were some unattended calls that she had to receive. Her hair bounced with her stride, and swayed gently in the wind.

Today, it will start.

But just how quickly, Zola hadn't imagined.

It happened quicker than Zola could utter the word "medicine". She hadn't quite observed the entire incident, but she pieced two and two together to make up an explanation that made quite a bit of sense. Two cars, one which seemed to have lost control for reasons that she couldn't fathom at the moment, sped towards each other at a perpendicular angle.

_Crash!_

That bit was obvious. But time held still for one moment, two…maybe even ten. But that was not for Zola; that was for the rest of the onlookers. Being part of a family where both your parents were doctors, and having spent all that time in the hospital when you were just a child, eagerly looking on from the other side of the glass must have amounted to something. Which was why, without giving it a second thought, Zola pushed herself forward and sped off towards the site of the accident.

After she reached the crash site, she noticed a lot of blood was scattered around, but she pushed back the bile smell as she put her bike in park then climbed off before rushing over to one of the people by the victims of the crash. "Can you tell me what happened?" she asked as she checked the crash victim for what kinds of injuries they had.

"Move over please, I'm a doctor." She had to assert herself when nobody seemed to be listening to her previous request. She quickly checked the pulse, the man was still alive and thank heavens for that. Zola was forced to repeat her question, and she got a fumbled answer in return from one of the terrified women who were standing in the background. She got up, ran to the other victim and checked the woman's pulse as well. There was a faint, low beat somewhere there. "Call 911!" She yelled as loud as she could, before attending to the woman first. Evidently, her airbags hadn't popped out, which meant that she had hit her head into the windshield. Zola grabbed her from below the shoulders and called for help.

A terrified, yet in some ways brave young man came forward, and offered to help. Zola instructed him and together, the two of them pulled the woman out of the wreckage. Within minutes, the squealing of tires and blaring of sirens could be heard by Zola and she turned to see them pulling up to the crash site. "Over here," she called out.

The two paramedics ran over, and Zola instructed them, "There's a man in that car, and he's in brutal shape. But this woman here needs immediate attention." She got up and stood over the woman who now lay on the ground. "I'm riding with you." She hopped into the ambulance which was taking the woman to the Grey-Sloan Medical Center and got out minutes later when she arrived there.

She was met with the familiar faces of Leigh, Henry and Austin and she smiled worriedly at them. "What happened?" Leigh asked Zola, knowing that the African-American would tell her first hand so she didn't hear it from anyone else later why her best friend was covered in blood.

"There was a car crash," Zola mustered as quickly as she could. "I was on the scene and tried to save her." She ran along with the woman on the gurney as she chanted, "Crush injury to the abdomen, broken c3 & c4, blunt trauma to the head, BP is 90/60, pulse is 110. She's in pretty bad shape, Leigh."

They escorted her next to one of the empty beds in the ER. "On the count of three…one, two, three," they spoke in chorus and then hoisted her up from the gurney and onto the bed.

Zola remained where she was, and although she sent a look to Leigh in reassurance that she was fine, the Asian-American was still worried about her best friend. But, she still let Zola do her job and went to start working on sorting through patients' charts.

Zola resumed her duties. She stared down at the woman in front of her, and her first automatic response was to go through the list of injuries in her head, while physically, she ordered for a CT and an MRI. "Page Dr. Grey," she yelled behind one of the nurses as she paused to take a deep breath. "Calm down, Z. You can do this." The nurses wheeled the woman away and Zola gathered up her strength, quickly ran into the changing rooms and swapped her clothes for the scrubs. She washed her hands clean and ran back into the ER.

It was time to look at the male car crash victim. She found Henry and Austin were missing and she turned, scrambling to catch sight of one of them, nearly colliding with Leigh once again in the process. "I…one of the nurses told me that they'd taken him up to OR 3," the Asian-American told her best friend.

Zola sighed with relief. "Who's operating on him? Aunt Lexie?" She addressed, rather in the informal sense. Fortunately for Zola, Leigh nodded quickly, in response. "Who have you got?" She asked, looking around for another patient to attend to in the ER while the woman was being identified and given a name tag, as well as the reports of the CT and the MRI were being published.

The two female interns went around, checking to see which patients in the ER needed more attention to be brought up to a certain floor of the hospital and which ones were allowed to go home sooner.

They finally realized that the only two traumatized victims in the ER were the man and the woman that Zola had brought in from the car crash. As they were both being attended to by the attending surgeons, the two women decided to occupy their free time with minor burns and cuts that these patients had. Zola and Leigh found themselves with two people who occupied beds next to each other. While Leigh worked on cleaning, and dressing a flesh wound; Zola picked out the man who had accidentally shot a nail through his index finger while attempting to use the nail gun to fix a certain wall hanging in the house.

That was while Leigh helped put a broken thumb back into place on another man's hand, grimacing at the sound of pain he made, before telling him, "All done, sir. You're good to go."

"Doc…can you tell my buddy over there what's wrong with him?" he said, nodding in the direction of the person that stood behind Leigh. The Asian-American turned around and regarded the man clutching his chest and she gave him a concerned look before watching with shock as the other man suddenly collapsed at her feet.

"Help…I need help over here!" she yelled out, kneeling at his side, jumping back in surprise when he suddenly began to bounce up and down on the floor in a seizure. She quickly instructed the other man to push the side table away, so that he wouldn't hit anything, sharp or blunt. She automatically started counting the time in her head, as the duration of a seizure was critical to any kind of prognosis. His breathing was affected, making it difficult to breathe and his skin changed color, turning to a dull shade of blue.

_Fifty five seconds_, she clocked, as the man stopped. Eventually his breathing and color returned to normal, and as he woke up, he was clearly tired and confused. Leigh spelt it out for him. "Hello, Sir. I am Dr. Leigh Hunt, and you are in Grey-Sloan Medical Center. You've just had a seizure." She proceeded to test him on his reflexes, gait, posture, coordination, balance, amongst other things and called out to the nurse standing by. "Ensure that he gets an EEG and a MRI." She said, getting up off the floor and heaving a sigh of relief.

This would be conquered, one step at a time. Turning, she pushed back the rest of the group that gathered around, telling them, "No, people, there's nothing to see here. Move along."

Leigh watched them scatter before she returned to Zola's side. What was an everyday sight for them, or what would be, rather, was a once in a millennium occurrence for the patient. Perhaps kind of like a shooting star, except not as positive?

This was the life they'd chosen to dive head first into, and they were sticking to it. Nothing could be better than helping save the lives of their fellow Seattle residents.

Having barely started their duties about an hour ago, Leigh had already tackled two severe kinds of cases, a broken thumb, a seizure, and had allotted all the right scans and necessary tests to be run. This was going to be a good, productive day.

Along the way, Henry and Austin helped them out but also got their own medical cases so that they each went their individual ways. This was their life, here on out. Each and every one of them loved it, and wouldn't change anything (except maybe climbing up the hierarchy). They were here to fight it out, and fight it out they would.

**Author's Note:** I had NO means to leave this hanging…AT ALL. I hope that you enjoy chapter two, because chapter 3 will get into the romantic stuffs!


End file.
